The Foil Weekly Wrap - 25 May '26

If you spent the weekend at a barbecue rather than glued to the racing, there’s plenty for you to catch up on. The AC38 fleet finally switched to race mode in Cagliari, Olympic class crowns were handed out across Europe, and SailGP slipped a new Italian venue into the 2027 schedule the moment the Cup village started packing up.

First competitive racing of the AC38 cycle, then, and our first proper look at how the crews are shaping up in the strict one-design AC40. In our preview podcast last week, Mozzy and Freddie both had ETNZ as the team to beat. The Italians had other ideas.

Luna Rossa's senior crew of Peter Burling, Ruggero Tita, Umberto Molineris and Vittorio Bissaro eventually lifted the trophy, but the real story of the weekend was the Women & Youth boat. Marco Gradoni and Margherita Porro had been imperious for most of the regatta and looked nailed on for the final. Then on the final day the wheels came off – a time-on-distance display glitch saw them OCS in the penultimate race and eventually DSQ'd, before a port-hand flyer pushed them over the line yet again with no way back. That knocked them out of the showdown by a single point and handed ETNZ's seniors a place in the big race.

The final itself swung on the pre-start. With 52 seconds to go, Outteridge let Burling out of his grip in a move he later admitted he'd usually have shut down without thinking, and ETNZ then came up 0.8 seconds early at the pin and had to bleed off 75 metres. The Italians marked them out for six legs and crossed 33 seconds clear in front of a roaring Cagliari crowd.

For the full breakdown, catch up with our coverage from the weekend – Tom ‘Mozzy’ Morris, Andy Rice, Lewis Smith and Freddie Carr going through it on Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 (below).

FULL RESULT HERE: Burling delivers Luna Rossa home glory in Cagliari

SailGP finally revealed the missing Italian piece of next year's calendar this week, with Rome confirmed as the new Italian venue for 11–12 September 2027 on a three-year deal. Convenient, then, that the league sat on the announcement until the Cagliari weekend had wrapped – hard not to read it as Coutts attempting to steal some of the Cup's thunder.

Meanwhile, the America’s Cup Partnership had an announcement of its own: the second AC38 Preliminary Regatta has been locked in for Naples on 24-27 September 2026, the next port of call after Cagliari.

And while we're on the topic, Naples is already lobbying to host the Cup again in 2029. Sports Minister Andrea Abodi has gone on record saying the city wants a second go, which would be the first back-to-back edition of the Cup since the 2007 sell-off. We don’t yet know where the ACP sits on the idea, though a Luna Rossa win on home water would probably help the cause.

Over to Urla on the Turkish Aegean for the Wingfoil Racing World Cup, where France's Vaina Picot and Poland's Kamil Manowiecki wrapped up their respective titles in single, decisive grand finals.

In marginal foiling conditions – the breeze hovering somewhere between 8 and 12 knots – Picot simply outworked the field, grinding to stay on the foil and crossing first to seal the women's title. Italy's Maddalena Spanu took silver after pushing her hard all week, with China's Yani Li in bronze. Picot now heads off to revise for university exams before the next World Cup in Switzerland – a reminder that the top end of this fleet is still juggling international medals with homework.

The men's title swung on Manowiecki's physical conditioning more than any tactical move. Convinced the shifting breeze made a tactical split too much of a gamble, the Pole picked a line that demanded he pump almost continuously and held on through four hardcore minutes. Italy's Alessandro Tomasi finished second and reigning world champion Mathis Ghio of France had to settle for bronze. Full results here.

The 2026 iQFoil European Championships in Portimão delivered new continental crowns for Dutchman Luuc Van Opzeeland and Israel's Tamar Steinberg, capping six days of racing across the full Atlantic catalogue at Praia da Rocha – tactical course racing, sprint formats, thermal breezes, Levante winds and proper ocean swell. We streamed the whole medal series on The Foil this weekend.

The women's grand final was a tussle between Steinberg and Spain's Pilar Lamadrid, who nailed the start once again. Steinberg, though, found her trademark speed at the top mark and from there managed the race calmly through a series of compressions. New Zealand's Aimee Bright took silver thanks to an advantage point carried in from the Final Series, with Israel's Shahar Tibi completing the podium after fighting all the way through from the quarter-finals.

The men's medal series was even more frantic – three sailors over early at the start of the semi, including Italian U23 standout Federico Alan Pilloni, who recovered to make the final regardless. Pilloni then attacked Van Opzeeland on the opening downwind, only for the Dutchman to respond on the next upwind and ride out a nervy final run for the title. Denmark's Johan Søe held on for silver and Pilloni's bronze caps a breakthrough European campaign. Full results here.

Down to Kaštela in Croatia for the ILCA European Championships, where Maria Erdi handed Hungary a second Senior European Trophy after a final-day comeback in the ILCA 6 women's fleet. Erdi has spent much of the post-Paris cycle rebuilding from a serious injury, so this one will have carried extra meaning. Great Britain's Matilda Nicholls took silver and Belgium's Emma Plasschaert bronze.

In the ILCA 7 men's, Pavlos Kontides did what he’s made a habit of doing at Europeans, picking up a third title – and somehow every one of them has been decided by a single point: 2018, 2022 and now 2026. Some quirk of biorhythm or a particularly determined four-year cycle, either way the Cypriot knows how to find the gears late. Germany's Philipp Buhl took silver and Croatian Filip Jurišić bronze in front of a home crowd.

Italy continued to flex its sailing prowess with a clean sweep of the ILCA 6 men's podium, Claudio Crocco lifting the trophy ahead of Lorenzo Ghirotti and Giovanni Bedoni. Full results here.

Over to Scheveningen on the Dutch coast for the fifth edition of the ORC Double-Handed Worlds, where the locals were in no mood to share the silverware – three world titles to the Netherlands across the three classes.

The championship pivoted on the long offshore race, just shy of two days of tactical work between the Dutch and British coasts, with unfamiliar currents and overnight navigation handing the locals a fair edge.

In Class A, Robin Verhoef and John van der Starre took the XR 41 X-ESTEEM ahead of Dutch compatriots aboard the J-122 MOANA, with Germany's XP 44 LAXXI the only non-Dutch boat on any of the podiums. Diederik Forma and Martjin Graafmans took Class B aboard the JPK 10.30 JETPACK, while in Class C the Sun Fast 3200 WAVERIDER of Willem Schopman and Max Deckers held off the J/35 FEVER and the J-109 TEAM HEINER 4. Full results here.

On to this week, and the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix is back on the Hudson as we near the mid-point of Season 6. Last time the league hit the Big Apple, in June 2025, it was Diego Botin's Los Gallos who came good in the winner-takes-all final, seeing off the Kiwis and France for back-to-back event wins following San Francisco.

This year SailGP is rolling out its first on-water spectating experience in New York, putting fans on boats right on the edge of the racecourse. We'll be there on the ground all weekend, so make sure you're following on YouTube and Instagram.

Round to Marseille for the J/70 Corinthian Worlds, which gets under way on 26 May on the same waters that hosted the Paris 2024 Olympic regatta. A maximum 95 amateur teams from 22 nations is in for the third edition of the title, with Bermuda's Alec Cutler and his Hedgehog crew aiming to defend the trophy they won last year. The Swiss have brought a deep contingent of 14 entries – well worth keeping an eye on.

Last week in the Bay of Naples, the 71st Regata dei Tre Golfi opened the IMA Maxi Europeans in handsome fashion. David Leuschen and Chris Flowers' Wally 100 Galateia took line honours for the second year running, completing the iconic loop around Ponza, Capri and Li Galli in 17 hours and a minute, with Šime Fantela calling tactics and Murray Jones reading the breeze.

Galateia also held on for corrected time in Maxi 1, ahead of V and Leopard 3. In Maxi Grand Prix the offshore was tighter still – Sir Peter Ogden's Jethou took line honours by the narrowest of margins, but on corrected time it was Peter Dubens' North Star coming out on top for the third time in just four appearances at this regatta.

From there the action has moved inshore to Sorrento for the European Championship proper, running through to Thursday 28 May. Day one belonged to Hap Fauth's Bellamente in Maxi Grand Prix, with Terry Hutchinson calling tactics, while Alessandro Del Bono's Capricorno, Torben Grael in the back of the boat, took Maxi 1. Plenty more to come before the trophy is lifted. Results and standings here.

A check-in on the Solitaire du Figaro Paprec, where Tom Dolan went out and answered last year's painful retirement with a stage win on the opening leg. The Irishman took the gun off Cape Finisterre, race control having shortened the leg by 50 miles to avoid stranding the fleet in light Spanish airs.

It wasn't a tactical masterclass so much as a series of small, precise calls – Dolan picked his moments, trusted his upwind speed in breeze, and finished 33 minutes 34 seconds clear of Loïs Berrehar on Banque Populaire. Paul Morvan recovered from a rough start to take third on Foricher-French Touch, with only the top six finishing inside the same hour.

Leg two has now been under way since Sunday – 450 nautical miles up to Pornichet – and on Monday afternoon Nicolas Lunven on PRB had carved out a 2.1-mile lead from Martin Le Pape, with the fleet spread across the Bay of Biscay and the breeze playing games. Thunderstorms, very little wind, plenty of sail changes and not much sleep. The kind of leg where positions are made and lost in tiny increments. Track the fleet here.

The Star fleet last week wrapped its Western Hemisphere Championship at Gull Lake, Michigan, where Jack Jennings and Pedro Trouche put it together early to seal the title. Reigning world champions George Szabo and Guy Avellon finished second, with Arthur Anosov and Dave Caesar third.

Attention now turns to the Eastern Hemisphere edition, which gets under way on Saturday 30 May. The venue is Lake Balaton in Hungary – Central Europe's biggest lake, properly inland, and a venue building a reputation as one of the better international keelboat lakes.